Poetic Humor

Writer Shares Insight On 20th-century Comedy

Sam Kashner of Williamsburg developed a keen sense of humor at a very early age for a very good reason.

"Humor is a good self-defense when you don't have fisticuff skills," says Kashner. "It helps you ward off the local bullies."

So he worked so hard at it he was considered "the class clown and resident hypochondriac" when he was attending grade school and junior high school in a tough area of Brooklyn.

That interest in humor has carried on through adulthood for Kashner, a professional writer and editor who will begin teaching a course on the subject April 5 at The College of William and Mary.

"Groucho is the patron saint of wiseacres," says Kashner. "He once met a priest in Montreal who said `Thank you for all the pleasures you have given me in my life.'

"Groucho answered: `Thank-you for all the pleasures you have taken out of mine!'"

"But he had a lot of friends who were priests and ministers. The point is, he never took himself too seriously."

Neither does Kashner. He's serious enough to have had two books of his poetry published but he pokes fun at them and himself.

"They're still in print," he says. "Books of poetry rarely go out of print because no one buys them."

Of himself, he says "I went to Skidmore, a former all-girl college in Saratoga Springs, the first year boys were admitted. I did it for two reasons: so I could take easy courses like ballet and home economics and ace them, and because it's a school with great tradition and not far from a racetrack.

After college, Kashner wrote and taught poetry, then went to Canada to work as a writer on a television show for children.

"It was pre-Pee Wee Herman and appealed to adults as well as children. It was more like "Bullwinkle and Rocky" than "Mr. Rogers."

The show was a success. Kashner then became involved with Admit One Productions, a company that handled films Jim Haverman, critic for the "Village Voice" termed anti-masterpieces because they were so bad.

"They were the perennial winners of the Golden Turkey Award for being unintentionally bad," says Kashner.

Admit One Productions packaged the films for videos, and Kashner researched and wrote the notes for the liners.

"And so, by accident, I became a self-styled expert on bad films," he says.

He then wrote specialty material for variety shows in Canada and California.

"Comedy writing is difficult. It makes you deeply cynical. So said I'd had enough and I went back to school."

With a Warner Communications Fellowship, he got his master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Columbia University and put together a new manuscript of poems.

Then he attended an Academy of American Poets' workshop directed by Nancy Schoenberger, who is also a poet.

"I submitted some sleazy love poems to her, and I guess I got through to her," he says. They were married last August, the same month Schoenberger received word she had been appointed writer in residence for W&M this year.

Kashner has been commuting between Williamsburg and New York where he is doing research for the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a future project.

"So here we are," he says.

Kashner and Shoenberger are currently laying the groundwork for a biography of the late Oscar Levant, whom Kashner calls "the father of courageous opinion."

"We're negotiating with June Levant, his widow, for it to be an authorized biography."

W&M has asked Shoenberger to stay on as a temporary member of the faculty. Kashner calls Williamsburg "a nice place to write the Levant book."

"Since I'm here, I want to make a contribution to the community," he says.

That contribution comes in the form of two courses he will teach for W&M - "20th Century Humorists: Perleman, Groucho, Thurber, Parker, Benchley" Thursdays for six weeks beginning April 5 and "New York Poets and Painters: A Portrait of Influences" for five weeks beginning March 28.